How to Budget Your Money

A budget is like a bra. It feels weird the first couple times, but once you get used to it, you're glad it's there. (Fellas, think "jock-strap.") In fact, a budget can help you crush your outstanding debt, get ahold of your financial future, and even make you a happier person in the process. And best of all, setting up a budget is really not that hard. It's important to get on that path to financial freedom.

Part 1 of 4: Tracking Your Income and Expenses

Determine your overall income. Are you on a fixed salary where you know for certain how much you're taking home each week? Are you a freelancer whose salary varies each month? Having a rough idea of how much money you can expect to earn is key in creating a successful budget.

If you are an independent contractor or freelancer, understand that what you bring home is not the same thing as what you earn. For example, you may bring home $2,500 every month, but that's pre-tax. Figure out how much you're likely to need to pay in taxes and subtract that from your monthly income to arrive at a more accurate number.

If you are a salaried employee, don't factor in a possible tax refund into your overall income. Your monthly income should reflect only what you bring home after taxes. If you do get a tax refund, you'll get to do with it as you please; if you don't, you won't be screwed.

Identify how you're spending money.

What are the bills that you have to pay every month? Do you go out to dinner with friends every Friday night or go to the movies once a week? Looking at where your money is going will give you a better handle on tracking it. There are free Internet tools to help you tracking your money

Break down what you're spending into categories. This will make it easier for you to see where your money is going. Often, this simple breakdown is enough to start changing habits, especially if you didn't fully know how much of your hard-earned money was going toward, say, booze or football memorabilia. Some categories you might use include:

Home (mortgage, upkeep, insurance)

Auto (loan, maintenance, insurance)

Food (groceries vs. restaurant purchases)

Utilities (Gas, electric, water)

Health and fitness (medical, gym membership, grooming)

Travel and vacation

Personal (entertainment, shopping, clothes)

Savings

Compare your regular expenses with your paycheck amount.

Do you get a negative number? If so, you are living way beyond your means. If you have money leftover, split that money up into a few groups:

Flex money. This should be about 10-20% of your paycheck, set aside for regular expenses like that fender bender you accidentally got into staring at a pretty lady while stuck in traffic. If something you need to pay for turns out to be slightly more expensive than anticipated, your flex will have things covered.

Savings. In an ideal world, you might save about 30% of your paycheck. In the real world, you should shoot to save about 10%, however big or small your paycheck is.[1][2] Build up enough savings for an emergency fund (about 4-6 times your regular expenses), then start saving money to invest.

Spending money. This is whatever is leftover after you subtract flex money and savings money. It's what you'd spend on things like clothes, eating out or other fun activities. If you start to cry when you realize how little fun money you have, then you may need to learn how to lower your expenses.

Part 2 of 4: Creating Your Budget

Set budget and financial goals. These should be short-term and long-term. It often helps to have something to be working towards to help stay on track with your budget. For example, if you want to save for a house, it helps to have that goal on your radar.

Short-term goals include not spending more than a certain amount of money every month or saving a few hundred dollars every month. Short-term goals are often easier to reach than long-term goals.

Long-term goals include being able to put down a mortgage payment on a home or a car, or begin meaningfully preparing for retirement. Because the fruits of our labor aren't seen immediately — they're often not seen for decades, in fact — long-term goals can be extremely hard to budget.

Make a list of what's absolutely essential that you pay for. These include essentials like rent or mortgage, electricity and heat, food and diapers, for example. Add all these items up and see how much of your monthly income is left after you account for the bare necessities.

If the bulk of your income is taken up by necessities, don't worry. There are always ways to tighten your belt, and also ways to make more money. The important thing is making a budget and sticking to it; this feat alone will help you start to rise above your circumstances.

If you have some wiggle-room after accounting for your essentials, that's great news. Not everyone has that luxury. Begin thinking about how you're going to prioritize the rest of you discretionary spending.

Begin budgeting out the rest of your discretionary spending. This part of your budget is all about identifying values. What values do you have and how do you want to spend your money to realize them? Money, after all, is a means to an end, not an end itself. Money are you going to use money to make it truly work for you?

What sort of a person are you, and what do you like to do? The vast majority of people end up spending money on hobbies, interests, and callings. Think of this as investing. You put something in (money), and you get something out (satisfaction, experience, etc.).

Think about what makes you really happy. Scientists are slowly beginning to understand that people who spend money on experiences are actually happier than people who spend money on possessions.[3] That's because charm of memories lasts a lot longer than the temporary charm of possessions, whose novelty wears off relatively soon.[4] Think about what experiences make you truly happy as you budget, and consider setting aside more money for travel and vacation than for material things.

Use software to help you budget. Personal finance software is quickly becoming a new trend in finance. These programs have built-in budget making tools that can help customize your budget, along with analytics that help you project cash-flow into the future and better understand your spending habits. Personal finance software includes:

Mint

Quicken

Microsoft Money

AceMoney

BudgetPulse